Brother Grieves While Family Fights Red Tape

Trials Are Set In The Slaying Of An Orlando Grocer's Brother, But Kin Are Stuck In Bangladesh.

February 20, 2000|By Debbie Salamone Wickham of The Sentinel Staff

Tears well in Farooque Khan's eyes each morning as he drives into the parking lot of the Orlando convenience store where his brother was gunned down.

At night, he says a prayer as he closes the store.

Without his brother, Khan, 44, feels alone. And he blames U.S. State Department officials for part of his misery.

They won't allow his parents and three siblings from Bangladesh to come to the United States, even though family members say they want to attend the upcoming murder trials of Jahangir Khan's accused killers in Orlando.

Farooque Khan said U.S. Embassy officials suspect his family members won't return to Bangladesh. But Khan promised they won't remain here. Like thousands of other crime victims, they simply want to see justice done, he said.

U.S. Embassy officials in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said they couldn't comment on individual visa applications. But visas can be denied when foreigners can't show sufficient assets or family ties that will guarantee their return.

Farooque Khan said his family is middle class and without enough assets to satisfy embassy officials.

``What happened to me - and they count money?'' he cried. ``That's not human.''

Jahangir Khan, 45, was ambushed June 15, 1998, as he left his First USA Food Store on Edgewater Drive. Robert Bernard Cook, 24, and his nephew, Willie James Cook, 20, are charged with robbery and first-degree murder.

A woman accused of driving the getaway car, LaShanna Tyson, 29, received 15 years in prison.

The Khan brothers opened the store in Orlando's College Park neighborhood five years ago. Jahangir Khan was popular among customers and used some proceeds to help the poor in Bangladesh, his brother said.

The slain brother fled the South Asian nation in the early 1980s on a tourist visa and failed to return. Farooque Khan said he doesn't know whether his brother's past is affecting the family.

Khan said his brother, who was in the United States legally, had received death threats because he was a district director in an underground political party, Sharbohara or Poor People's Party.

According to Khan, embassy officials also have questioned whether his siblings, in their 20s and 30s, truly are related to him. He said the accusation is false, but proving heritage is difficult because birth certificates are not routinely issued in Bangladesh.

The siblings need to come for the trial because Khan's elderly parents, who don't speak English, need assistance, he said.

Emigration is a hot issue in Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan. Each year, tens of millions of people try to immigrate to the United States from the country, which borders India.

Bangladesh has 128 million residents in an area the size of Wisconsin, making it one of the most densely inhabited places on Earth. Widespread poverty, illiteracy, food shortages and unsanitary living conditions plague the region.

Still, Farooque Khan insists his family will return and thinks his situation is unique. His store manager and friend, Bob Sasscer, has written dozens of letters trying to win the family's travel rights.

U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Longwood, and Orange County prosecutor Jeff Ashton have written letters asking the embassy to consider the travel request.

``When you are alone without your family you feel ...'' Khan trailed off as the tears flowed. ``I feel like I'm dead, too.''